READ the full story below the video (sorry for the vertical video in the beginning)

Almost Almost two weeks ago, Chako found out about a 5-6 week old singleton Pit Bull puppy turned into the Yuba County Animal control. We contacted Yuba, at first requesting to pull the puppy into rescue so that we could ensure the puppy received adequate socialization during her critical formative weeks. There’s a LOT of literature out there discussing just how critical weeks 5-10 are for puppies, and puppies removed from their littermates and mothers so early, without competent intervention, often face serious behavioral issues later. The shelter refused to release the puppy to us. They said a lot of people had expressed interest, so they expected she’d be adopted. This shelter does not:

• spay or neuter dogs prior to release;
• screen adopters;
• follow up to ensure intact dogs they release are later spayed or neutered.

In response, we offered to foster the puppy for two weeks to give her proper socialization and get her out of isolation from her small kennel. We explained we would foster for the shelter and return her at 8 weeks to be adopted. If she didn’t get adopted, then we’d consider pulling her, if they wished (and we’d also make sure she was spayed). We explained our temporarily fostering her would open up a kennel, at the very least, but the sheriff’s representative stated they have no problem with kennel space (which is unusual for public shelters). The shelter refused to release her to a temporary foster home, stating she was getting adequate care and explaining they intended to hold a drawing to see who gets the puppy. We’ve copied the relevant portion of Captain Long’s email below where he explains they’ll hold a drawing for the puppy.

Dawn,

I just talked to our Animal Care Technician. This puppy will be available next Wednesday at 8:30 am when we open for business.  We have also told the same thing to the other three citizens who expressed interest in adopting this puppy. If more than one person shows up at 8:30, we wait for a few minutes and we have a drawing as to who gets the puppy….

Thanks, Alan Long 

When 8:30 a.m. came, in order to prevent an unspayed Pit Bull puppy from being randomly given out to whoever put his or her name into the drawing, several Chako volunteers woke up bright and early to participate in the drawing. We walked into the public lobby and asked to see the puppy and, sure enough, their adoption process involved holding a drawing. They also adopted the puppy intact to the random winner. While we were there, George, one of the shelter staff, explained they had to euthanize a deaf dog just the other day due to lack of kennel space.

In the video, you can hear the shelter representative stating that the puppy is “very mouthy.” Bite inhibition is one of the things 6-8 week old puppies learn by interacting with other dogs. This puppy, alone in a kennel, had no chance to learn bite inhibition. Thankfully, the puppy is now in a Chako foster home where we’re working hard to ensure she has lots of positive experiences with other dogs and people. We hope to make up for the weeks she spent in isolation in the shelter kennel.

Ask Yuba County to change its practices by emailing the Sheriff at sdurfor@CO.YUBA.CA.US.